Articles Tagged with construction accidents

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is responsible for over 130 million American workers at over eight million job sites. Yet OSHA has less than 2,000 inspectors to monitor all these workers. That translated to about one inspector for every 70,000 workers. So, if you believe government inspectors can keep your workplace safe, you may want to think again. OSHA estimates that the Fatal Four injuries, which are listed below, cause most workplace fatalities.

When government bureaucrats fail to protect people, a Marietta personal injury lawyer usually stands in the gap. Our team not only makes workplaces safer by forcing companies to put people before profits. We also obtain the financial compensation these survivors need and deserve. They need it to pay medical bills and other final expenses. They deserve it because, in most cases, the workplace accident was not the decedent’s fault.

Falls

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were approximately 1,061 work-related deaths in the construction industry in 2019. This is the highest number of deaths among construction workers since 2007. The following article will discuss some causes of construction accidents as well as some practical steps for employers to avoid these accidents at the workplace.

What are Some Common Causes of Construction Accidents?

There are many factors which can contribute to construction accidents in the workplace, but some major factors include:

Power tools are a common presence in American homes and workplaces. Millions of people have power tools at home, ranging from the most basic, such as drills or power screwdrivers, all the way up to fully equipped home woodshops or metal shops. Cordless or corded, power tools are everywhere, and this is particularly true in many American workplaces. Many occupations, including most manufacturing jobs, construction, and trades, including electrical work and plumbing, rely heavily upon power tools. They make completing many jobs safer, faster, and more efficient. Think about trying to build a house without even so much as a power saw. Putting so much power in such a small package – many power tools are hand-held – is, unfortunately, often a dangerous proposition, even for professional users. Not surprisingly, then, workplace accidents involving power tools are fairly common events.

Injuries From Power Tool Accidents Can be Serious

Many people use power tools at home, completely unrelated to on-the-job use of power tools. Such at-home use, rightly or wrongly, can give employees a false sense of knowledge and security regarding use of power tools on the job. The problem, of course, is that the types and power of tools used on the job far exceed what most home power tool users have experienced. When employees believe they know “enough” about operating power tools, particularly hand-held power tools, they may be able to avoid training or pay little attention during training. 

Industrial accidents are often the result of a chain of events. There are usually multiple parties whose negligence or intentional failures led to an innocent worker’s injury. Of course, when the victim files a lawsuit, these parties are quick to try and deflect blame to one another.

Hill v. Konecranes, Inc.

An ongoing federal lawsuit in Savannah, Hill v. Konecranes, Inc., provides an apt illustration of this principle. This tragic case involves the 2015 death of a crane operator. The victim worked for International Paper Company (IP) in Augusta, where he used a gantry crane to move timber. Konecranes, Inc., was the company responsible for manufacturing and installing the crane. IP also retained Konecranes to perform regular inspections of the gantry crane.

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